Pho Vit 115 — Restaurant in El Monte

Was really impressed with this family run shop. The food is pretty simple and straight forward, very clean and done really well. Just know this isn't your standard, familiar pho restaurant. It's a duck restaurant. It's really a duck broth restaurant that also serves the boiled duck meat and traditional Asian carbs/starch accompaniments with some additional dishes.

If I haven't made it clear yet, the broth is the star of the show. It is pure, it's balanced, it's clean, it's so simple it might take you a bit to really appreciate it. But most won't just come for the broth so you can choose pho noodles (really good quality with nice chew), vermicelli, glass noodles, egg noodles, congee or rice to go with the broth as well as the boiled duck meat over a slaw salad with ginger sauce. You can also get a variation of any of the aforementioned with a duck and bamboo/menma broth that's a little earthier. For non duck eaters there's chicken curry as well as a spiced pork belly with sticky rice or banh mi.

The restaurant itself is very clean, bright and staff was friendly and patient. If you aren't familiar with these type of Vietnamese/Chinese dishes it might be a bit of a leap of faith, but I highly recommend them and hope they stick around for a while even if it means it's have to wait...

Ordered the Dinner Special Half Duck for 2 people (including one pho and one porridge), the number 7 Co'm Vit (Duck with rice), and the number 6 Pho Mang Vit (Duck rice noodle bamboo shoot). The soup broths were noticeably salty which was unusual according to one of the people in our group; would recommend the restaurant to cut down on the salt. The duck broth elements were there but the soup was just too salty. I really enjoyed the porridge which was all you can eat with the Dinner Special option (pho is also an AYCE option too). The porridge had a nice smooth consistency and had hints of duck broth flavor in it; this also came with two blood cubes buried underneath which was a nice surprise if you like blood cubes. The pho noodles are alright but they do feel a bit firm and could do with softening up a bit more. The duck itself was well seasoned and had good flavor, I would say maybe some of the portions didn't have as much meat on them as we would have liked. Overall, this was a really great place to have a dinner with friends or larger groups. There is enough space in the booths and the tables for a family to enjoy a meal together. Service was very prompt and quick to help tend to any requests. Parking in this area can be busy but there is free street...

Come for duck salad (goi vit, #1). It's my favorite thing to bring to potlucks. (It's also keto!)

The duck is juicy. I thought both the dark meat and white meat pieces were equally good. The pieces are big, but they do have bones.

The salad (cabbage+lettuce+Vietnamese coriander+banana stems+fried shallots+roasted peanuts) is perfectly herbaceous and fresh. The dressing is tangy, peppery (in a gingery way), and sweet. It's complexity at its finest.

As for the noodle soups, the duck pho (#5) is GREAT! The bun mang vit (#7) IS BETTER! The pho broth is clear and nicely savory; I have nothing bad to say about it. The broth for bun mang vit has more punch and more flavors going on--that's why I like it so much more than the pho. Both are great.

In both noodle soups, the duck is served as a salad and you add the salad+meat into your noodle soup bowl. My advice: if you're getting a noodle soup, don't order an additional duck salad unless you want a bigger portion of the duck salad. The duck salad that comes with the noodle soup is plenty for one.

If you're eating keto, the duck salad is one of favorite things. (Go easy on...